Cotton gin with novel hulling and ginning rib construction



Dec. 29, 1964 .1. J. WALLACE 3,162,903

COTTON GIN WITH NOVEL. HULLING AND GINNING RIB CONSTRUCTION Filed June 2, 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INTERSECTED KPASSAGE 5o INVENTOR ATTORNEYt? Dec. 29, 1964 J. J. WALLACE COTTON GIN WITH NOVEL HULLING AND GINNING RIB CONSTRUCTION 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 2, 1961 -lllllll l -ulllll III!" I IWM INV E NTOR lie/fi e Jail Me I & W ATTORNEYS Dec. 29, 1964 J. J. WALLACE COTTON GIN WITH NOVEL HULLING AND GINNING RIB CONSTRUCTION 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 2, 1961 INVENTOR flffzzyfimMe BY 6 ATTORNEYS 5/5554 1 fi W 5:

m I w M 5 Dec. 29, 1964 J; J. WALLACE COTTON GIN WITH NOVEL HULLING AND GINNING RIB CONSTRUCTION Filed June 2, 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofifice 3,ib2,93 Patented Dec. 29, 1964 3,1623% COTTON GIN WITH NGVEL HULLING AND GINNHIG RE C(SNSTRUCTION .Iefirey John Wallace, Amite, La., assignor, by mesne assignments, to John T. Gordin, .I. R. Gillian, Geo. Garrison Fotts, jointly, 211 of Dallas, Tex.

Filed June 2, 1961, Ser. No. 116,654 10 Claims. (Cl. 1959) This invention relates to cotton gins, this application for patent being a continuation in part of my application for patent Serial No. 63,886, filed October 20, 1960, now abandoned, for Cotton Gin with Novel Hulling and Ginning Rib Construction.

It has for its general object the provision of a gin, particularly one of the huller type having an operative etficiency greater than that of the most advanced type of known gins, the improvement being derived primarily from the employment of novel rib constructions both as to the hulling and the ginning ribs, which respectively supply seed cotton to the roll box without congestion at the front of the hulling ribs which in the conventional gin restricts the rate at which cotton may be fed to the gin, and which avoids congestion of cotton at the rear of the ginning front, an occurrence that continually plagues the operation of conventional gins, and which is the cause of frequent fires in a gin, which often carry Over into the bale, resulting in a conflagration in the warehouse.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a gin incorporating the improved rib constructions above referred to, in conjunction with a saw cylinder of larger diameter than the maximum size now considered practical, employing for example, saws of sixteen inch diameter having a corresponding greater peripheral speed than the usual twelve and one half inch diameter saws, and therefore, capable of passing a greater number of teeth through the roll box in a given time, thus further increasing the capacity of the gin, the use of which large diameter saws being made practicable by the employment of the new rib constructions.

A further object of the invention is the novel construction and shape of the ribs per se.

Still another object of the invention is to provide the ribs in multi-rib units or sections, for example, ten ribs to a section, this sectional construction making it easy to remove or replace the ribs, minimizing the number of securing means required, and having other advantages which will be explained in due course.

Other objects of the invention will appear as the following description of practical embodiments of the invention proceeds.

In the drawings which accompany and form a part of the following specification, and throughout the figures of which the same reference characters have been used to denote identical parts: 7

FIGURE 1 is a vertical cross-section through a double ribbed cotton gin embodying the principles of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical elevational fragmentary view of a multi-rib section of the hulling front, viewed from the rear;

FIGURE 3 is a similar view, seen from the face side of the section; 7

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of this section;

FIGURE 5 is an inclined fragmentary elevational view taken in a plane parallel to the line 55 of FIGURE 1, showing the full width of the opening through said section communicating between the roll box and the adjacent portion of the mote chamber;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary view in perspective of a multi-rib section of the ginning front, an intermediate part being broken out;

FIGURE 7 is a diagrammatic view on an enlarged scale, illustrating in successive positions a cotton seed with attached lint, the seed being on its way to the roll box and the lint being on the opposite side of the ginning front tensioned by the saw and robbed back into the roll by the seed;

FIGURES 8 and 9 are views partly in elevation and partly in section of slightly modified forms of multi-rib ginning rib sections, parts in each figure being broken away or omitted.

Referring now to the drawings, and first describing generally the gin shown in FIGURE 1, it consists of, the usual fundamental components, the fixed component A which supports the saw cylinder, and the respective ginning and hulling breasts B and C.

The breasts open and close with respect to the fixed component and to one another by rectilinear movement in a horizontal direction, but the details regarding their support and the means for moving them are not herein disclosed since they belong to my companion application for patent Serial No. 90,802, filed February 21, 1961, for Cotton Gin with Slidably Mounted Breasts, the present application being devoted to those elements and combinations thereof that are concerned with the ginning and hulling functions.

The large diameter saws 10 are mounted on the saw cylinder shaft 11 spaced apart by the spacers 12, and extended between the hulling ribs 13, ginning ribs 14, and passing through the roll box 16, the ginning ribs in the aggregate including the lower portion of the cove board 15 whichis part of the wall of the roll box. The space between the hulling and ginning ribs and intersected by the saws, forms the seed chute 19, which at its free end is open to the roll box between the points 17 and 18 at which the teeth of the saws respectively enter and leave the roll box. The saws keep the roll in the roll box pressed back so that the spacers between the saws remain open and form conduits through which the seed fall which were separated from the lint by the ginning ribs at the point 18.

Seed cotton enters the gin by way of the cotton chute 20. Forwardly of the hulling ribs are the spiked cylinders 21 and 22, and below them is the reclaimer saw cylinder 23, the latter being served by the doifer 24, which as shown, is of the brush type.

Beyond the ginning point 18 is the mote chamber 25, which is served by a blast nozzle 26, producing a jet in the form of a curtain directed toward the mote discharge duct 27, which entrains air and receives the motes thrown off by the saws at the ginning point.

Further displaced from the ginning point is the dofiing blast nozzle 28 which directs an air jet tangentially with respect to the saws, and blows the lint off of the saw teeth into the lint flue 29. The mote and dofiing nozzles are connected to an air pressure chamber 30, which is in communication with a conduit 31 extending from a blower, not shown.

Now, referring to the hulling ribs shown in'FIGURES l, 2 and 3, each may be regarded as having three components, a lower component 32 which begins at the lower end of the rib and is secured to the gin rail 33. This component includes the usual intermediate portion which is substantially concentric with the saw cylinder and exposes a narrow arcuate portion of the toothed periphery of the saw cylinder and which bends outwardly at its upper end, thereby establishing the point 17 at which the rim of the saw passes inwardly between adjacent hulling ribs. This outwardly extended end portion is narrower in width than the portion below it, so that the slot between two adjacent end portions of the component 32 is wider than the continuation of the slot below the point 17, through which the saw extends. The effective width of the slots is further increased, since they are not occupied by the saws It is'through these wide slots that the seed cotton is pulled by the saw teeth, the width being su'chas to pass the seed with attached lint but to hold back much of the hull debris and other material larger than the seed.-

The lower component 32 is theequivalent of the on tife' rib in conventional gins insofar as its cooperation with the hulling instrumentalities is concerned, so that the rib could terminate at the top of the lower component if it were sturdy enough to stand alone, secured only at its lower end to the gin rail. Under such circum stances there would be no problem of passing surplus seed cotton to the roll box. By surplus cotton is meant cotton in excessof what the conventional ribs can handle, forsuch cotton would move upward and flow freely through the unbroken space above the tops of the lower components into the rollbox. However, the solution is not so simple, for the ribs are necessarily slender due to the fact that they must'fit between the saws with clearance, and they are subject to great pressurefrom the cotton on the saw cylinderand that which is thrown against them by the hulling cylinders. One cannot,;thereore, sidestep the necessity of. snpportingthe hullingribs at both ends to keep them from becoming bent or broken, and this applies even more to. the ginning ribs, which are longer than the hullin'g ribs. In the face of this necessity, the problem is how to preserve to the greatest extent possible an open passage 59 extending across the gin above the upper ends of the components 32' while at the same time anchoring the ribs to the upper gin rail 34 or its: equivalent. This problem is solved in the present invention by providing the rib with an upper anchoring component 35, which terminates short of the top of the lower component, and arrinter'mediate component in th form of a hat tie plate 36 of sheet form and uniform thickness (about one-eighth of an inch), as shown in FIGURE 1, rigidly secured to the upper component 35 and to the lower component 32,-bridging the passage be tween said components, having its thin edgje intersecting said passage so as to interpose the least obstruction of the free openness of said passage. Assuming the saw cylinder to be ten feet long and furnished with one hundred forty saws, the opening above the ribswould be approximatelyten feet long, intersected by a tie plate 35 at each rib, one. hundred forty tie plates in all, having an aggregate thickness of one hundred forty times one-eighth of an inch or about eighteen inches, which is only about fifteen percent of the total area of the passage. The tie plates are. spaced apart substantially the distance between adjacent saws.

g The specific details, of construction, and shape and at rangement of the hulling ribs can best be comprehended from FIGURES'Z, 3 and 4, in which the actual construction of the hulling ribs in the prototype model; is illustrated. H These figures show a multirib section 40 of the hulling rib front comprising ten ribs to a section: The lower component32 is made of a rectangular metal sheet 32a, of such width as to embrace ten ribs. It is provided with saw slots 37 about three-sixteenth inch wide. The slots terminate short of the lower end of the sheet. The unslotted lower portions, as shown, is provid'ed with two bolt holes 38' for securing the section to the lower gin rail, but as will be seen later, in alternative constructions the lower portion is left imperforate, adapting it to be secured to the gin rail by clamping means.

The upper component of the multirib section is a plate 35a, as wide as the sheet 32a. The sheet is bent to the contour of the lower rib component before the components are integrated by welding, and the tie plates 36 are shaped to fit in lapped contiguous relation to the upper and lower components and welded thereto along their lines of contact.

It will be noted that in the completed rib section the portions of the sheet 32a and the plate 35a, which lie between the tie plate have been milled out or otherwise opened for the. full width of the spaces between the tie plates and for the full extent of the lapped portions of said components. The cutway portions between the tie plates in sheet 32a contitute slots 39 which are enlarged varia tions of the slots above the saw rims in the hulling rib front of conventional gins, through which the seed cotton is normally drawn on its Way to the roll box. The cutway portions of the pper emponent 35a in effect vastly increases the width of the passage 56 for surplus cotton whichextends acrossthe gin above the end of the lower component, which passagelhas no counterpart in conventional gins. The parallel lines a'a and b-b in FIGURE 1 indicate the width of the opening across the gin between the upper and lower component the space between said lines being the length in geometrical projection of the slots 39;. V H

While a welded construction of multirib section has been disclosed; this has been done as a matter of convenience, in that the prototype sections were made that Way. It is however, to be understood that the scope of the invention extends to integrally formed or fabricated ribs in whatever way manufactured. Nor is the invention limited to cover rib units consisting of multirih sections. It is obvious that the section 40, without show of invention could be out along lines ef (FIGURE 2) in the medial diametrieal planes or the. saw blades, into individnal ribs 13.

Turning now to a brief description of the hulling instrumentalities and their correlation with the new hu'lling rib construction; it may be stated that the seed cotton will be fed into the cotton chute 20 at a considerably higher rate than in conventional gins. This cotton slides down the inclined bottom wall'of, said chute,'landing against the spiked cylinder 22;,- the convex sides of the spikes engaging the cotton and throwing it against the teeth of the saws at the lower end of the are 41 of the saw rims exposed beyond the rib components 32, where it becomes attached to the saw teeth, moving upward with the saws. In View of the large amount of seed: cotton being handled, the hulling capacity of the'gin must be stepped up. To accomplish this each of the rib components 32 is pro vided on its frontfface with a forwardly projecting lug or knuckle 42, located about midwayin the. length a: the are 41,. similarly'positioncd for all the ribs. This lu'g is narrower than the rib component 32 as shown in FIG-' URES 2 and 3, so as. to provide a wide space between the lugs of adjacent ribs. The. seed cotton moving upward on the. saws. forcibly contacts the lugs, the latter combing through it, impactively engaging and disentangling parts of the hulls and debris from the cotton, and providing means by which doublehulling is accomplished. The hulls and debris loosened by the lugs 42, fall on the down-going side: of the spiked cylinder 22, to be discharged through the chtite 43. More than one knuckle may be provided for each rib, if desired.

The reclm'mer saw 23, which is narrowly spaced from the bottom of tlie holler chute separates the fibers from the debris, and the richer transfers the fibers back to, the. spiked cylinder 22, by which it is returned to the saws, of the saw cylinder.

The spiked cylinder 21 is so positioned that the spikes: enter the forward part of the passage 50 and the ends of the slots 39, the spikes" moving downwardly. The primary purpose or the spiked cylinder 21 is to form a barrier to prevent the cotton being thrown by centrifugal 'force away from the saws, thereby reducing the carrying capacity of the saws. The position of this spiked cylinder is such that it forms a stop by which seed cotton that has been disengaged from the saw teeth. by centrifugal force is caused to hesista te, allowing the teeth to re-engage the same. The spiked cylinder 21 also acts as a clearer for:

any surplus cotton that may tend to accumulate against the outwardly curved upper end of the components 32.

The roll of cotton in the roll box revolves at fifty or more revolutions per minute and generates considerable centrifugal force. The centrifugal force developed by the saw cylinder is somewhat greater than that of the roll. The greater centrifugal force creates a tendency for the saws to shed seed cotton into the roll. The seed cotton that enters the passage 50 moves up-into the roll box on the teeth of the saws, where some of it is wiped off of the teeth by the roll and becomes part of the roll, while the saws pulling through the roll pick up cotton already in the roll and take it out of the roll.

It should not be overlooked that a large portion of the cotton composing the roll is seed, and that the surface layers of the roll where the peripheral speed is greatest, have the urge to break their cohesive bond with the underlying layers and leave the roll. However, this urge is offset by thecentrifugal pressure of the roll against the walls of the roll box, which tends to compact the cotton on the roll, md by the enmeshment of lint attached to the peripheral seed, with the underlying lint. All of the cotton that immediately enters the roll box at a single pass of the saws is not immediately discharged by the saws on the same pass. What is discharged consists of some of the seed cotton introduced at that particular pass of the saws, and some that has traversed the roll box once, twice, or more times. After the roll has been built up, the rate of discharge of cotton is substantially the same as the rate at which seed cotton enters the roll box and consists of substantially denuded seed which fall into the seed chute 19, lint which continues around on the saw teeth to the dofiing point, and lint more strongly attached to the seed than to the saw teeth, and which is robbed back into the roll.

The ginning ribs 14 have generic likenesses to the hulling ribs above described, but there are specific differences in their shape, arrangement and functioning, and in their novel correlation to adjacent instrumentalities, that make them patentably distinct from the hulling ribs. Each, as in the case of the hulling ribs, comprises three components, the lower component 44 which is secured to the lower gin rail 45, the upper component 46 which is fixed to the upper gin rail 47, terminating in spaced relation to the lower component, and the intermediate component which is the tie plate 48, and which is secured both to the lower and upper components in the same manner as was employed in fabricating the hulling ribs. It is within the purview of the invention to make all three components integral, as by casting, if desired, and it is preferred to make the ginning front, that is, the aggregate of all the ginning ribs in multirib sections 49 of ten ribs each, as shown in FIGURE 6.

The intermediate parts of the components 44 are concentric with the saw cylinder and closely approach the spacers between the saws, to define with the hulling ribs and that part of the roil in the roll box which is kept pressed inwardly by the saws, the seed chute 19. The end portions 51 of the lower component 44 which extend above the ginning point 18, that is, the point at which the saw teeth pass between the ginning ribs, in the embodiment shown, constitute part of the wall of the roll box and are subject to great pressure. For this reason, and because the components 44 are larger than their counterparts in the hulling ribs, they have greater necessity for being fixedly supported at their upper ends than the components 32 of the hulling ribs. The slots 52 which separate the portions 51 are sufiiciently narrow throughout their linear extent to exclude the passage therethrough of cotton seeds. The ends of said portions are deflected toward the center of the roll box so as to make a dent in the roll as it passes said ends.

The upper components 46 are shaped to form a dihedral angle having its apex spaced from the ends of the outer portions 51, offset rearwardly from the ends of said upper portions, said components having a wing 53a on the face side of the rib, forming part of the wall of the roll box, and a rearward wing 54a which is adapted to fit against the gin rail and be secured thereto. The forward wing is substantially parallel to the deflected ends of the portions 51. An opening 55 is thus formed communicating with the roll box, having its medial axial plane substantially tangential to the roll in the roll box, extending longitudinally across the roll box from end to end, and which is intersected by the tie plates 48. These, like the tie plates 36 of the hulling ribs, lie in parallel vertical planes passing through the medial length dimensions of the ribs, their edges facing forward toward the roll box. The unobstructed space between adjacent tie plates is quite extensive, equaling the width of a rib plus the width of a saw slot.

Since the roll in the roll box is intergeared to the saw teeth with some slippage, the roll and saws tend to travel in opposite directions. As viewed in FIGURE 1, the roll moves counterclockwise and the saws clockwise. At the ginning point 18, the periphery of the roll is moving upward and the saw teeth to the right. As previously stated, the periphery of the roll is displaced inwardly in the region where the saws intersect the roll box, but through centrifugal force the roll bulges out against the portions 51 of the ribs, then it is slightly pushed back or indented by the deflected ends of the portions 51, and it finally expands against the wing 53a of the upper component 46 engaging said wing a short distance above the ends of the portions 51. This leaves a space at the inner side of the opening 55 for the entry of material through said opening into the roll box.

The roll in the roll box is, as stated, composed of seeds and lint, the lint being attached to the seeds, some loosely and some tightly and all massed together, the seeds being more or less cohesively embedded in the mass, the density of the mass depending upon the rate at which cotton is fed into the roll box, and how fast the seed get out, as well as the centrifugal pressure of the roll against the walls of the roll box, and the position of the adjustable lambreguin 56 which increases the density of the roll the more it is inclined inwardly with respect to the roll box.

In the case of those seed encountered by the saw teeth which are only lightly held in the surface layer of cotton on the roll, the streamers or locks of lint attached to these become also attached to the saw teeth and are quickly drawn between the ribs, pulling the seed from the roll against the face side of the ribs substantially at the ginning point 18, the lint being separated from the seed and the latter dropping downward between the saws through the seed chute 19. However, a large portion of the seed are more tightly held in the roll and do not come away so promptly. When the locks of lint from these become attached to the saw teeth, a pulling effect takes place between the saw teeth and the roll. The tightly held seed move upward with the roll while the lint attached to these is drawn in the opposite direction through the ribs. The tensioned lint assumes an inclined attitude illustrated diagrammatically in FIGURE 7, which shows a seed embedded in the peripheral layer of cotton on the roll in several successive positions as the roll turns counterclockwise. At the point S the saw teeth are in engagement with the lock of lint attached to the seed. At the point S the seed has moved upward and the lint is beginning to be drawn through the ribs. At the point S the seed has moved up higher with the roll and the lock of lint has been carried further along on the saw teeth. The lint assumes a more steeply inclined attitude as the roll with the seed moves upward. Finally, the tensioned lock of lint reaches the stress limit and either lets go of the saw teeth and is robbed back into the roll entire, as as S or it comes apart, a portion being carried away by the saw teeth and a portion being robbed back. The time it takes to express this description of behavior of seed cotton caught in the tug of war between roll and saws,

makes it seem a slow motion action. However, considering that the roll revolves fifty or more times per minute, and the saw cylinder even faster, it will be appreciated that the process is substantially instantaneous. One can look into the back of a gin over the top of the saw cylinder and observe a continuous curtain of lint extendingfrom end to end of the saw cylinder being robbed back from the saws and moving back into the roll.

It will be readily understood, by observing FIGURE 7, that this curtain is three-dimensional, since the lint is being robbed back into the roll from a continuous successi'on of teeth to the rear of the ginning ribs. Inasmuch as the action of the hulling instrumentalities anterior to the roll b'ox cannot by the nature of the material upon which it operates be one hundred percent effective, the cotton in the roll has a fair intermingling of hull fragments, small sticks and other debris. A stick, by way of example, may be in length several times the diameter of a seed, but it it happens to present itself to one of the slots between the upper portions 51 in a longitudinalposition with respect to the slot, it can pass through. If one assumes that a stick comes through the ribs enmeshed in a cotton lock attachedto aseed that stays with the roll, the instant the teiisioned lock breaks or detaches from the saw, the stick will be set spinning and will immediately wind up on one or more filaments of the maze constituting the said threedimensio'nal curtain, which it encounters while being robbed back so that it becomes the nucleus of a wad of cotton too thick to pass back through the slots between the portions 51 of the ribs. Such wads accumulating at the backs of the ribs form a massive congestion 'contigib ous to the saws, which in conventional gins readily catches fire from frictional heating, frequently with disastrons results. I k

In the subject gin, the opening "55 provides an ample passage for the return of such wads and other obstructive substances, and also provides a much more ample avenue of return for much of the robbed back lint that would ordinarily have to return 'to the roll by way of the slots of seed excluding width. The axial plane of the opening 55 is directed substantially perpendicular to the bulk of the streamers of lint returning to the roll box, so that the maximum'cross-sectional area of the opening is presented to the incoming filaments. I

Due to the high peripheral speed of the saws, a consider'abl'e amount'of lint is thrown oil of the saws centrifugally upon the emergence of the teeth through the 'back of the ginning ribs. The free lint travels upward between thetie plates; becomes "entrained by contact in the maze of fila'nients being robbed back; and enters the roll box with them. The void produced in the roll box at the inner side of the opening 55 by the deflected ends of the rib portions 51, provides room for the entry of the robbed back cotton and the entrainedfree lint, which becomes incorporated into the 'roll andthe face of the wing 53 of the upper rib component 46, to take another trip around the roll with the unclean seed.

The tie plates 48 are interleaved by the rims of the saws and are of sufiicierit width in a rearward direction to keep separate the strands of cotton robbed back from the respective saws and also the free lint centrifugally separated from the saws so that there can be no lateral uniting or entanglement of the returning strands or a free lint from adjacentsaws, which would promote the formation of webs impenetrable by the free lint, and prevent its passage into the opening 55. Furthermore, the spinning sticks within the curtain of lint being robbed back, are limited to gathering to themselves only the lint lying between adjacent tie plates, the result being the formation of smaller wads, ensuring their return to the roll box, and facilitating the subsequent cleaning of the cotton. The tie plates 48 are preferably made sufficiently wide in a'depth direction to embrace the successive saw teeth involved in holding the cotton being robbed back.

Adverting again to FIGURE 1, it will be observed that the mote chamber 25, in the relative position of the parts shown, is almost closed to the intake of air except by way of the nozzle 25 which is directed toward the wide mouth of the mote discharge duct 27'. The high velocity of the jet from this nozzle which blows the motes and trash into the mote duct also induces air in the mote chamber to follow the same and creates a mild suction in the mote chamber. The roll of seed cotton in the roll box normally substantially blocks the entrance of air into the roll box between the upper ends of the lower components of the ginning ribs, and the layer of cotton on the saw cylinder. prevents any substantial amount of air being'drawn from between the saws or at the points at which the saw cylinder approaches most closely the lower ends of the walls of the mote chamber. A door 759 closes the opening at the upper end of the mote chamber between the ginning breast B and the fixed component A. This door is hinged at one end about a rod 71 which extends horizontally across the'ginning breast adjacent one end ofsaid opening and has its free end.

portion lying fiat upon the top of the fixed component. It has sufiicient length to remain supported upon the fixed component when the breasts are moved away to their full extent from the hired component. This prevents the door from falling into the opening. While the door remains closed substantially no air enters through the opening.

Normally, there is not enough air coming in at the V ginning point or at the opening 55 to divert the air-borne lint freed at the'ginning point from its appointed flow path upward and through the passage 55 into the roll box. However, some batches of lint are so dry and light that the suction induced intake of air at the ginning .point which is above the jet curtain with respect to nozzle 26 may carry the freed lint over to the mote duct where it becomes lost with the motes. Furthermore, in some installations the mote discharge duct may have to be unduly long, one hundred feet or more, in which case, a suction 'fan is employed at the far end of the mote duct auxiliary to the nozzle 26. With this arrangement the suction in the mote chamber might inadvertently be increased to the point that a considerable quantity of lint is drawn into the mote duct.

The door 70 is used as a regulator for controlling the suction in the mote chamber. It may be opened to any extent to obtain the desired pressure conditions. When it is opened a current of air is drawn in because of the slight vacuum in the chamber above the jet curtain which descends substantially to the plane of the jet curtain sweeping floating motes into the mote duct, but the air flow entering the door does not afiect the upward travel of the free lint for the latter is in a protected position, being behind the salient formed by the breast beam '47, and between the plates 48.

Referring to FlGURE 6, this shows a multiple rib section of ten ribs, in which the upper component 46 is formed with a dihedral cross-section providing the for- Ward wing 53a which'is unslotted, since it forms part of the wall of the roll box, generally called the cove board, and the rearward wing 54a which adapts the multirib section to be secured to the gin rail47. The tie plates 48 lap the adjacent portions of the lower component 44a and the wing 54a and arewelded thereto along their contiguous lapping edges, similarly to the counterpart members of the 'hulling rib sections. The upper and lower components are of equal overall width, so that while being installed'or replaced they are positioned one against another and areself aligning. As with the hulling rib, the multirib section of the ginning-ribs may be integrally formed as a complete rib structure by molding or casting, and it is obvious that the invention embraces the The portions of the lower rib components 32 and 44 in both the hulling and ginning rib fronts, which extend beyond the respective points 17 and 18, may be considered the working areas of the ribs, since it is along these portions of the ribs that the normal respective hull and seed separation is accomplished. In the case of the hulling ribs, the saw teeth are moving upward so that when the strands of lint attached to the seed are engaged by the saw teeth, there is a tendency of the seed to move upward so that crowding of the seed at the point 17 is relieved and they may have to enter through the slots between the ribs singly or in groups at any point in the length of said slots. In the cast of the ginning ribs, it is the roll in the roll box that is moving upward, and as has been described, the seeds ride upward against the ribs until they either drop off from the lint at any point in their upward travel, to fall through the seed chute, or they continue upward beyond the working area of the ribs to re-enter the roll.

Conventional gins likewise function in this manner, but the entire rib in known gins is capable of doing no more than the lower rib component in the subject invention. The provision of the capacious passage across the hulling rib front above the working area of the hulling ribs, to take care of the surplus seed cotton or overfeed, made possible by the use of the larger diameter saws, is a radical distinction from other gins, as is also the provision of the wide opening extending across the gin adjacent the tops of the working area of the ginning ribs, to handle the added burden imposed by the overfeed.

Incidentally, the invention is to be regarded as applicable to gins employing twelve-inch diameter saws, insofar as the substitution of the novel ribs of the subject invention, for the conventional ribs is concerned, in relieving the overloading diificulties both as regards the hulling and ginning fronts, and enables more cotton to be processed in a given time than is now possible with conventional gins.

It is not essential to the proper scope of the invention that both sets of ribs be employed in the same apparatus. If the gin does not include a huller front so that the seed cotton is fed direct to the roll box, the use of the novel ginning ribs of the present invention permits more cotton to be accepted by the gin and processed without capacity limiting congestion than is possible in apparatus employing conventional ginning ribs.

The lower components 32 of the hulling ribs 13 are bevelled along the edges of the saw slots on the face side of the ribs, to expose the saw teeth to a greater depth than if the slot edges were not bevelled, for the purpose of allowing the teeth to penetrate deeper into the cotton. This is an advantage, since the seed intermingled with the lint tend to keep the cotton from hugging the rims of the saws closely, and the bevelling of the slot edges of the face side of the rib permits the cotton to occupy the groove between the bevelled edges, giving the teeth a deeper bite into the cotton. The edges of the saw slots on the rear side of the hulling ribs are preferably not bevelled, but rightangular, since the unbevelled slots hold debris and trash away from the saw teeth better than the bevelled edges. If the rear side of these ribs were bevelled, an expedient which has to some extent been tried, some of the seed passing through the seed chute between the saws which come into frictional contact with the sides of the saws would be knocked against the backs of the hulling ribs and channeled into the grooves formed by the bevelled edges, and the saws would have the tendency to pull the seed through the clearance space between saw and rib and discharge them into the debris being removed by the huller ribs on the face side of said ribs.

The lower components of the ginning ribs are, however, bevelled along the edges of the slots on the back or inner side of said ribs for the following reason: the portions of the saws remote from the center sometimes become warped through overheating, out of a true circular plane,

It) i so that When the saws are at rest and it is attempted to move the gin breast from open to closed position, the irregular saw rims will cam against the bevelled edgesof the slots without damaging the saw teeth. If the edges of the slots were rightangular, the teeth of the saws would be damaged by contact with the ribs. When the saw cylinder is operating, centrifugal force smooths out the lateral deviations of the saws so that the teeth run free in the slots. This problem is not encountered by the hulling ribs for only a relatively short are of said saws penetrates the hulling rib front.

The edges of the saw slots on the face side of the lower component of the ginning ribs are unbevelled, that is to say, they form a rightangled corner, since such an abrupt edge makes better separation of seed from lint, as there is greater tendency of the seed to be drawn into the wedge-like space between rib and saw formed by a bevelled edge.

It has been found experimentally that some efiiciency in ginning is gained by making the ginning ribs wider than they are thick, since frictional retardation of the flow of lint through the slots in the working areas of the ginning ribs is noticeably less in slots having relatively shallow depth. Another advantage attending the lower rib components in which the thickness is less than the width, is that in combination with the relatively thin tie plate which rigidly connects it to the upper rib component, the rib can yield slightly, and by yielding, increase the width of the slot between it and an adjacent rib in the working area, so-that if a large slug of lint attached to the saw is presented to the slot, too large to normally pass therethrough, the pull of the saw will cause the slug wedgingly to spread the sides of the slot to let the slug through, and the native resiliency of the ribs as a Whole will immediately return them to normal position in which 'the slot resumes its normal narrowness, sufiicient to exclude the seed. g

Referring now to FIGURES 8 and 9, these show ginning rib sections that differ from the section shown in FIG- URE 6, in that the rib does not form part of the cove board 15, and therefore, the upper component is not formed with the dihedrally related wings which characterize the upper component 46 in FIGURE 6.

In FIGURE 8 the dihedrally related wings 53a and 54a of FIGURE 6 have become part of the cove board 57 forming the integral vertical portion 58 and the upwardly inclined end portion 5? and are not part of the ribs. These portions fit more or less against a filler 60 within the angle of the gin rail and being secured thereto. The upper component 61 of the multirib section in this instance is a plate having the relatively deflected wing portions 62 and 62', the former fitting against the gin rail and being secured thereto, and the wing 62' fitting close against, but unattached to the upwardly inclined portion 59 of the cove board. The tie plates 48 are similar to those shown in FIGURE 6, and are fixed to the lower component and to the wing 62. The lower component 64 is similar to the lower component 44, except that the lower unslotted portion is not provided with holes for securing bolts, but is imperforate, being secured to the lower gin rail by the clamp 65.

The modified form of ginning rib shown in FIGURE 9 differs from that shown in FIGURE 8, in that the tie plates 66 are not cut off in line wit-h the outer face of wing 62, as shown in FIGURE 8, but are given additional width by being extended at the top to project beyond the rear vertical face of the gin rail. The securing bolt passes through the wing 62, the gin rail, and through a clamp member 67, the assemblage being tightened by the nut 68. The clamp member is provided with grooves 69 which fit over the outwardly extending portions of the tie plates 66 and give them additional support.

It is to be understood that in FIGURE 9, as well as in FIGURE 8, the construction at the lower end of the rib or rib units is the same, that is, a clamp member is 11 employed to secure the rib or rib unit to the lower gin rail. The use of a clamp is quite important in minimizing the number of holes that must be drilled in the metal gin rail to accommodate individual ribs or multirib sections, and the clamp also greatly facilitates removal and replaceinent of the rib or multirib section.

For a long time, gins equipped with twelve and one half inch diameter saws have been considered standard, and insofar as applicant is aware, no larger saws are in use. It is quite probable that the idea of employing larger saws has engaged researchers, and has been investigated and dropped for lack of ingenious concept of providing ribs which afford substantially free passages above the working areas respectively in hulling and ginning ribs. The particular diameter of sixteen inches referred to in this specification has been selected simply because saws of this size'were used in the prototype model employed by applicant in probing the practicability of gaining ginhing emciency by the use of larger saws. Only after a long series of tests, innumerable changes and at times, discouraging results, was the novel rib structure herein disclosed evolved, and which has given a brilliant performance. Doubtless the novel features which have done so well with a sixteen inch diameter saw will be proportionately beneficial with saws of any size, including the twelve and one half inch diameter saws in use.

One of the advantages of the larger diameter saws is that the several areas of the gin immediately associated with the saws are proportionately increased, permitting latitude in the sizing or positioning of those instrumentalities which operate upon the cotton while on the saws. For instance, the difference in circumference between a twelve and one half and sixteen inch diameter saw is approximately twelve inches. This gives an appreciably longer are of teeth exposed to the hulling instrumentalities in the hulling breast. There is more latitude for the optimum positioning of the lug or lugs 42 with respect to the spiked cylinders. In the roll box there is a longer are of teeth in contact with the roll, and of less curvature than the arc of smaller diameter saws, so that the teeth can attach to more cotton. There is a longer are of teeth exposed to the air flow in the mote chamber, and there is a longer arc of teeth exposed to the dofling blast than in saws of smaller diameter, so that all of these functions on instrume'ntalities in planetary relation to the saws can be performed more elficiently.

While I have in the above disclosure described what I believe to be preferred and practical embodiments of the invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the specific details of construction and arrangement of parts, as shown and described, are byway of example and that they may be varied according to the exigencies of use without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cotton .gin having a roll box, a saw cylinder having saws and a ginning front constituted by a system of ginning ribs inoperative relation to said saw cylinder, said ribs each comprising a lower, an intermediate and an upper component, the lower components being in secured relation to a lowergin rail, the saws of said saw cylinder passing through said roll box and between said lower components below the upper ends of the latter defining a ginning area across said front extending upward from the points of intersection of the upper arcs of said saws with said front an adequate distance to enable said lower components to perform the full seed separating function of the ribs'when the gin is being fed at full capacity, the saws of said cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized conventional maximum of twelve and one half inches, when the saw cylinder is run at the same r.p;m. as the conventional maximum rpm. for twelve and one half inch saws, the peripheral speed is greater, thereby increasing the capacity of the ginand inherently resulting. in the centrifugal throwing 12 off of considerable lint at the ginning area immediately back of said lower components, the upper components being in secured relation to an upper gin rail and in spaced relation to said lower components forming an opening across the gin communicating with the roll box above the ends of said lower components and with a mote chamber above said saws at the back of said lower components, said opening functioning as an avenue of return for lint and attached debris carried through the lower components by the saws and robbed back by seed that remain attached to said lint and which are retained in the roll, moving upward therewith, said intermediate components each comprising a member of sheet form, of uniform thickness and having planiform opposite sides, in rigidly connected relation to the corresponding upper and lower components at the back of the components, positioned with its planiform sides parallel to the planes of the saws and intersecting said opening, said' intermediate components being of such length as to be interleaved by the saws and being of suflicient width depthwise to maintain separate the lint being robbed back from the respective saws, thereby preventing cross entanglement of lint being robbed back from adjacent saws, thus maintaining orderly flow paths between said intermediate components for the entrainment of the centrifugally thrown lint with the robbed back cotton moving toward said opening.

2. A cotton gin designed to have the ginning saws run at sufficiently high peripheral speed to throw off centrifugally some lint cotton'from the saws, said gin comprising a saw cylinder, roll box and ginning front, the saws of the saw cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized conventinal maximum of twelve and one half inches, so that when the saw cylinder is run at the same rpm. as the maximum r.p.m. for twelve and one half inch saws, the peripheral speed is sufficiently greater to throw off lint centrifugally, said ginning front including ribs each having a' lower component extending to a level above the points at which the saws emerge from the roll box and pass between the ribs, said ribs each having an upper component with its lower end spaced from the upper end of the corresponding lower component, the passage thus formed being sufficiently capacious to pass at the same time lint drawn through the front attached to the saws, lint centrifugally thrown by the saws, robbed back lint, and sticks that escape between the ribs with their complement of attached lint, said ribs including intermediate components comprising plates of sheet form bridging said passage at the back of said upper and lower components, being of such length as to interleave with the peripheral portions of the saws and of such depth as to form between them compartments that fully embrace the upper arcs of the saws from which robbing back takes place, for segregating the centrifugally thrown lint, robbed back lint and sticks from each saw during the traverse of these objects toward said passage.

3. A cotton gin as claimed in claim 2, including a mote chamber at the rear of said ginning front, a mote duct under suction opening in the wall of said mote chamber remote from said front, means for delivering a mote entraining air jet from a point adjacent the ginning point toward said mote duct, and means for admitting an air fiow to said mote chamber at such point as to cause it to sweep lint into the path of said entraining jet without affecting the flow of centrifugally thrown lint through said compartments toward said passage.

4, In a cotton gin, a roll box, a saw cylinder having saws, a hulling front and a ginning front, said fronts each constituted by a system of ribs in operative relation to said saw cylinder and roll box, the ribs of both systems each comprising a lower, an upper and an intermediate component, the lower and upper components being fixedly secured to corresponding gin members, the lower components of the hulling ribs being'so shaped and'positioned as to expose the upwardly moving saws of the saw cylin-' der in an extensive arc forward of said hulling front, the upper ends of said lower components, beyond the point at which the saws move inwardly of said ribs, being turned in a forward direction forming a hulling area, the lower ends of the upper components of said hulling ribs being spaced from the corresponding lower components above the forwardly turned portions of the latter, forming a passage across the gin, the intermediate components of said ribs comprising plates of sheet form and substantially uniform thinness bridging said passage at the back of said upper and lower components and defining compartments individual to the saws, lugs projecting from the forward faces of said lower components at an intermediate point, a feed chute, s spiked roll below said lugs positioned to receive seed cotton with boll material from said chute and deliver it to said saws in their are of exposure, dashing it upward against said lugs, and a second spiked roll in guard position in front of said opening for knocking back toward said lugs gross material attempting to enter said opening by flowing over the upper edges of the lower components.

5. Cotton gin as claimed to claim 4, said lugs being correspondingly positioned at intermediate points in the arc of exposure of the toothed saw rims at the forward face of the hulling front.

6. A cotton gin including a saw cylinder having saws, the saws of said cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized conventional maximum of twelve and onehalf inches so that when the saw cylinder is run at the same r.p.m. as the conventional maximum r.p.m. for twelve and one-half inch saws the peripheral speed is greater, rib front and roll box, said front being constituted by a series of spaced ribs each comprising a lower component secured to a fixed gin member, an upper component also secured to a fixed gin member and an intermediate component integrally joined to the adjacent ends of said upper and lower components, said intermediate components functioning as tie plates to the components which they join, being flat, of uniform thinness less than the general width of the components which they join and of greater depth than said components in planes parallel to the intervening saws, the thinness of said tie plates being such as to provide resilient lateral deflection of adjacent lower components responsive to the wedging force of slugs of lint introduced therebetween by the intervening saw, too large to pass through the normal space between said components, permitting said slugs to pass through.

7. A cotton gin designed to have the ginning saws run at a sufficiently high peripheral speed to throw off lint centrifugally at the ginning point, comprising a saw cylinder, roll box, ginning front, and a mote chamber rearward of said roll box, the saws of the saw cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized conventional maximum of twelve and one half inches so that when the saw cylinder is run at the same r.p.m. as the conventional maximum r.p.m. for twelve and one half inch saws, the peripheral speed is sufficiently greater to throw off lint centrifugally, the ginning front comprising a system of ribs, each rib consisting of a lower, and intermediate and an upper component, the lower components terminating at a distance above the points of intersection of the peripheries of the saws with the ginning front, providing a ginning area of such capaciousness as to enable the lower components to perform the full ginning function of which entire conventional ginning ribs are capable, the upper components being in spaced relation to the lower components forming an opening across the gin communicating with the roll box and with the mote chamber, said intermediate components being of sheet form and substantially uniform thinness, being of sufficient length to interleave with the saws and wide enough in planes parallel to the saws to embrace the arcs of the saws from which robbing back takes places, together forming compartments that keep separate the lint robbed back from respective saws, thus maintaining orderly flow paths between adjacent intermediate components for the entrainment of the centrifugally thrown lint with the robbed back cotton moving toward said opening on its way to the roll box.

8. A high capacity cotton gin designed to have the ginning saws run at a sufliciently high peripheral speed to throw off lint centrifugally at the ginning point, comprising a saw cylinder, roll box, hulling and ginning fronts, and a mote chamber rearward of the roll box, the saws of the saw cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized maximum of twelve and one half inches so that when the saw is run at the same r.p.m. as the conventional maximum r.p.m. for twelve and one half inch saws, the peripheral speed is sufficiently greater to throw off lint centrifugally, the hulling and ginning fronts each comprising a system of ribs similar to the extent that each rib is composed of a lower, upper and intermediate component, the lower components terminating at a distance above the points of intersection of the peripheries of the saws with the respective fronts, providing hulling and ginning areas of such capaciousness as to enable the lower components to perform the full hulling and ginning functions of which entire conventional hulling and ginning ribs are capable, the upper components being in spaced relation to the lower components forming openings through the fronts across the gin, the opening through the hulling front affording access to the roll box of overflow cotton by-passing the hulling areas of the lower components, means at the approach side of said opening for excluding therefrom cotton carrying gross debris, said intermediate components being of sheet form and substantially uniform thinness, being of sufficient length to interleave with the saws, the intermediate components of the ginning ribs being wide enough in planes parallel to the saws to embrace the arcs of the saws from which robbing back takes places, together forming compartments that keep separate the lint robbed back from respective saws, thus maintaining orderly flow paths between adjacent intermediate components for the entrainment of the centrifugally thrown lint with the robbed back cotton moving toward said opening on its way to the roll box.

9. In a cotton gin, a saw cylinder having saws, a roll box, a ginning front constituted by a series of ginning ribs in operative relation to said saw cylinder, each ginning rib comprising an upper, a lower and an intermediate and an upper component, the upper portions of said lower components being part of the wall of the roll box and being intersected by the peripheries of the saws, defining the ginning point, a mote chamber contiguous to said roll box at the rear thereof having a wall opposite said roll box, a mote duct opening in said wall, the latter being shaped to form a flaring mouth of said mote duct, said saw cylinder having a peripheral portion forming the floor of said mote chamber extending from said ginning point substantially to the lower edge of said mouth, an air-blast nozzle adjacent the lower edge of said mouth positioned to direct a blast of air into said mote duct close to the adjacent side of said mouth, the lower components of said ribs terminating at such distance above the ginning point as to provide a ginning area of such capaciousness as to enable the lower components to perform the full ginning function of which entire conven tional ginning ribs are capable, the upper components being in spaced relation to the lower components forming an opening across the gin communicating with the roll box and with the mote chamber, said intermediate components being of sheet form and uniform thinness, of such length as to interleave with the saws, and wide enough in planes parallel to the saws to embrace the arcs of the saws from which robbing back takes place, together forming compartments in said mote chamber that keep separate the lint robbed back from respective saws forming orderly flow paths for the robbed back cotton moving within said compartments toward said opening, and means for admitting a controlled current of air from atmosphere into the upper part of said mote chamber, the walls of :said mote chamber being shaped to establish a pattern of flow of said air current whereby it sweeps motes suspended in said mote chamber into said mote duct and :sweeps longitudinaliy'of the floor of said'mote chamber in contact therewith removing and carrying into said mote duct such motes as may have settled on said floor.

10. In a cotton gin as claimed in claim 9, thesaws of the saw cylinder having a diameter greater than the recognized maximum of twelve andone half inches, so that when the saw cylinder is run at the same rpm. as the maximum r.p.m. for twelve and one half inch saws the peripheral speed is sufficiently greater to throw off lint centrifugally at the ginning point, the robbed back cotton functioning as the vehicle, entraining the centrifugally thrown off lint carryingit upward through said opening into the rollbox.

16 References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 263,099 8/82 Basom 1962 347,666 8/86 Van Winkle 19-62 X 410,082 8/89 Ellis 19-57 911,034 2/09 Fuller '19?62 1,237,984 8/17 .Westbrook 1962 1,273,182 7/18 Prichard 19-56 1,407,984 2/22 Clarke 1962 1,755,908 4/30 Johnston 1961 1,823,135 9/31 Elliott 1956 1,986,901 1/ 35 Starke et a1 1955 2,097,673 11/37 McLean 1962 2,119,186 5/38 Streun 1962 2,253,456 8/41 Wallace 19-58 2,536,780 1/51 Streun, 1958 DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A COTTON GIN HAVING A ROLL BOX, A SAW CYLINDER HAVING SAWS AND A GINNING FRONT CONSTITUTED BY A SYSTEM OF GINNING RIBS IN OPERATIVE RELATION TO SAID SAW CYLINDER, SAID RIBS EACH COMPRISING A LOWER, AN INTERMEDIATE AND AN UPPER COMPONENT, THE LOWER COMPONENTS BEING IN SECURED RELATION TO A LOWER GIN RAIL, THE SAWS OF SAID SAW CYLINDER PASSING THROUGH SAID ROLL BOX AND BETWEEN SAID LOWER COMPONENTS BELOW THE UPPER ENDS OF THE LATTER DEFINING A GINNING AREA ACROSS SAID FRONT EXTENDING UPWARD FROM THE POINTS OF INTERSECTION OF THE UPPER ARCS OF SAID SAWS WITH SAID FRONT AN ADEQUATE DISTANCE TO ENABLE SAID LOWER COMPONENTS TO PERFORM THE FULL SEED SEPARATING FUNCTION OF THE RIBS WHEN THE GIN IS BEING FED AT FULL CAPACITY, THE SAWS OF SAID CYLINDER HAVING A DIAMETER GREATER THAN THE RECOGNIZED CONVENTIONAL MAXIMUM OF TWELVE AND ONE HALF INCHES, WHEN THE SAW CYLINDER IS RUN AT THE SAME R.P.M. AS THE CONVENTIONAL MAXIMUM R.P.M. FOR TWELVE AND ONE HALF INCH SAWS, THE PERIPHERAL SPEED IS GREATER, THEREBY INCREASING THE CAPACITY OF THE GIN AND INHERENTLY RESULTING IN THE CENTRIFUGAL THROWING OFF OF CONSIDERABLE LINT AT THE GINNING AREA IMMEDIATEDLY BACK OF SAID LOWER COMPONENTS, THE UPPER COMPONENTS BEING IN SECURED RELATION TO AN UPPER GIN RAIL AND IN SPACED RELATION TO SAID LOWER COMPONENTS FORMING AN OPENING ACROSS THE GIN COMMUNICATING WITH THE ROLL BOX ABOVE THE ENDS OF SAID LOWER COMPONENTS AND WITH A MOTE CHAMBER ABOVE SAID SAWS AT THE BACK OF SAID LOWER COMPONENTS, SAID OPENING FUNCTIONING AS AN AVENUE OF RETURN FOR LINT AND ATTACHED DEBRIS CARRIED THROUGH THE LOWER COMPONENTS BY THE SAWS AND ROBBED BACK BY SEED THAT REMAIN ATTACHED TO SAID LINT AND WHICH ARE RETAINED IN THE ROLL, MOVING UPWARD THEREWITH, SAID INTERMEDIATE COMPONENTS EACH COMPRISING A MEMBER OF SHEET FORM, OF UNIFORM THICKNESS AND HAVING PLANIFORM OPPOSITE SIDES, IN RIGIDLY CONNECTED RELATION TO THE CORRESPONDING UPPER AND LOWER COMPONENTS AT THE BACK OF THE COMPONENTS, POSITIONED WITH ITS PLANIFORM SIDES PARALLEL TO THE PLANES OF THE SAWS AND INTERSECTING SAID OPENING, SAID INTERMEDIATE COMPONENTS BEING OF SUCH LENGTH AS TO BE INTERLEAVED BY THE SAWS AND BEING OF SUFFICIENT WIDTH DEPTHWISE TO MAINTAIN SEPARATE THE LINT BEING ROBBED BACK FROM THE RESPECTIVE SAWS, THEREBY PREVENTING CROSS ENTANGLEMENT OF LINT BEING ROBBED BACK FROM ADJACENT SAWS, THUS MAINTAINING ORDERLY FLOW PATHS BETWEEN SAID INTERMEDIATE COMPONENTS FOR THE ENTRAINMENT OF THE CENTRIFUGALLY THROWN LINT WITH THE ROBBED BACK COTTON MOVING TOWARD SAID OPENING. 